


hubris

by tchouli



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Anger, Bitterness, Episode: s03e20 Death Benefit, Episode: s05e13 Return 0, Fix-It, Future, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17438087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tchouli/pseuds/tchouli
Summary: takes place during "Death Benefit" with  a look to what could happen in the future during "Return 0" and the opportunity to change that future





	hubris

**Author's Note:**

> takes place during "Death Benefit" with a look to what could happen in the future during "Return 0" and the opportunity to change that future

Harold stood alone on the wrong rooftop listening to the gunfire in his earpiece. He knew he had made a mistake in letting the Congressman live. Everything from that point forward, like dominoes, had a cascading effect - Sameen captured – Root gone – Elias gone – and now John, his John, gone.

Both Sameen and John had tried to make him understand and to believe in the Machine, his creation, his daughter. Harold had taught her to see all possible outcomes but to value life; and, for her to see that a death, a sacrifice as it were, was required wasn’t just an arbitrary decision. It needed to be done. But, no, he had known better. He always knew better, he thought bitterly. Just like with Nathan. 

She had seen all the possible permutations and outcomes, like in chess, of what would happen if the Congressman lived or died. He could not. But that didn’t stop him from making the final decision, from giving John an ultimatum. And, Sameen and John, followed his orders because they believed in him. Both had paid a price for that loyalty.

Harold’s hubris had sentenced friends, allies, loved ones to death or worse. He couldn’t take it back. He would have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life. And, that too, in itself, was a kind of hubris.

SIMULATION TERMINATED  
RESETTING TO REAL TIME

That was the first time the Machine had ever interfaced with Harold. If he were honest, he had always been a bit jealous of Root for being able to speak directly to her, even though he always denied it. He knew it had more to do with him and the arms-distanced approach he had always practiced between himself and the Machine and not the Machine refusing to speak to him. Hubris, again. 

The outcome of this situation must really be important for her to disregard the barriers she had always respected. Harold nodded. He understood. He turned and focused again on what John was saying about the Congressman.

_John - "If we let him walk out that door, Decima wins. Samaritan will go live."_   
_Harold - "It's a possibility but not a certainty. There may be another way. We've never been here."_   
_John - "But are you really willing to take that risk? Harold?"_


End file.
